Judge gets tough on wife killer

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERSSunesh Manilall was convicted of murdering his wife.

Pietermaritzburg - ‘I don’t want to hear any more excuses. If I hear any more excuses your bail will be revoked and you will go to jail.”

This was the stern warning given to Howick resident Sunesh Manilall by Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Gregory Kruger on Monday, when Manilall’s appeal against his conviction and sentence for the murder of his wife was again postponed.

Manilall told the court on Monday he was not able to pay his advocate to represent him and requested the full bench appeal be postponed to allow him to raise funds.

Manilall’s attorney, Kogilan Chetty, also requested that Manilall’s bail be amended to allow him to conduct his newly established tow trucking company.

This, Chetty said, would allow Manilall to raise the necessary funds to finance his appeal.

Chetty asked that Manilall be allowed to enter any jurisdiction in KwaZulu-Natal, however this was met with contempt by Judge Kruger.

“I am not willing to allow this man more freedom and therefore more opportunity for him to evade justice. He does not deserve it,” the judge said.

Judge Kruger did grant Manilall the adjournment and in terms of a draft order the appeal was adjourned to May 15 next year.

Manilall was given until January 30, 2015 to place his legal representatives in funds.

Failure by Manilall to continue with the appeal on May 15, 2015 will result in the appeal being struck from the roll and Manilall forfeiting his bail.

Manilall was convicted, with the woman he later married, Mumtaz Osman, and Viktor Mbatha, of orchestrating the murder of his first wife, Monika Manilall, in February 2006.

Monika was shot dead in her Howick home by four men found to have been hired to carry out the murder for a fee of R10 000.

The trial judge, the late KZN judge president Herbert Msimang, ruled that Manilall and his lover, Osman, assisted by Mbatha, had hired men to murder Monika because she had threatened to divorce her husband after finding out about his affair.

Manilall, Osman and Mbatha were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Manilall subsequently petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal for leave to appeal against his conviction, which was granted.

In June 2011, he was released on R40 000 bail pending his appeal to a full bench. His bail was extended on Monday.

Manilall and Osman (who is serving her life sentence at Westville Prison) have since divorced and Manilall is again remarried.

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